Chordoma Investigator Team

One of the special features of the research conducted by DCEG investigators is that it is carried out by a dedicated study team. Each member of the team brings special expertise to the study.

The Study Team for DCEG's chordoma research consists of the following individuals:

Alisa M. Goldstein, Ph.D., is a board certified Ph.D. medical geneticist. She has been involved in research to identify genes and environmental factors that increase a person's risk for develping cancer for over 20 years. She is the principal investigator of the Non-Familial Chordoma Study and serves as the senior consultant on laboratory and analytic aspects of both the Familial Chordoma Study and the Non-Familial Chordoma Study.

Dilys M. Parry, Ph.D., is a board certified Ph.D. medical geneticist. She has been involved in research on familial and hereditary cancers for 30 years. She began studying chordoma families in 1996 and then initiated the Familial Chordoma study. She is responsible for obtaining and analyzing the clinical information from both the Familial Chordoma Study and the Non-Familial Chordoma Study.

Deborah Zametkin, R.N., M.S.N., is a senior research nurse who has been working with patients with familial and hereditary cancers for 18 years. She has been involved in the Familial Chordoma Study since 1996 and now serves as the study manager for the Non-Familial Chordoma Study.

Xiaohong Rose Yang, Ph.D., is a senior investigator who is interested in identifying genes and environmental factors that increase a person’s risk for developing cancer. She is responsible for deciding which laboratory studies should be done on DNA from members of chordoma families and from individuals who are the only person in their family with chordoma. She serves as the liaison between any laboratories involved in the chordoma research and the study team. She is also responsible for analyzing the laboratory data from the chordoma studies.

The study team collaborates with investigators from other institutions who are also studying chordoma or who have expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of chordoma or in state-of-the-art laboratory methods that can be used to examine biological specimens from members of chordoma families or from individuals who are the only person in their family with chordoma.